British Museum <London> / Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities [Hrsg.]: The sculptures of the Parthenon: Elgin room (Band 1) (London, 1880)

the birth of Athene was accomplished by cleaving the
head of Zeus with an axe. In the most generally diffused
version of the myth this was done hy liephaistos, hut Attic
tradition preferred to attribute the deed to Prometheus.
The ground for identifying the torso now discovered with
one or the other of these mythic beings, is that the action
of the shoulders and of the muscles of the back suggest
the notion of a figure about to strike with both arms
rifted [above his head. (Michaelis, pi. 6, fig. 13; Caldesi,
No. 32.)

SCULPTURES OP THE WESTERN
PEDIMENT.

The subject of the western pediment of the Parthenon,
according to Pausanias (i. 24, 5) was the contest between
Athene and Poseidon for the soil of Attika. This contest,
according to tradition, took place on the Akropolis itself
Athene, on this occasion, showed her power by making the
soil produce the olive-tree; Poseidon, striking the ground
with his trident, produced a salt spring, or, according to
another tradition, a horse and a salt spring. The victory
in this contest was adjudged to Athene. The spot where
this double miracle took place was marked in subsequent
times by two adjacent temples, the Erechtheion and the
temple of Athene Polias; within the precinct of one was
the sacred olive-tree produced by Athene, and the other
protected the salt spring of Poseidon.

In the time of Carrey, the composition in this pediment
was nearly perfect, but between his date and the visit of
Stuart to Athens (1751-1754) the greater part of the
figures were destroyed. In order to understand the few
torsos which remain, it is necessary to describe first the
composition as it is given in Carrey's drawing. In the
centre of the pediment are a male and female figure (L, M),
part i. c